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Indo-Pacific and NATO

Canada in the Pacific Islands: Rectifying Ottawa’s Pacific Island Blindspot

Where are the Pacific Islands in Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy? In his latest article, Joel Sawyer examines Canada’s Pacific Islands approach, highlighting the region’s central importance to geopolitical competition, food security, and as an potential source of climate change-induced insecurity.  

Indo-Pacific and NATO

What the Iran War Means for China’s Taiwan Calculus

How is the Iran war reshaping China’s strategic calculations toward Taiwan? Nguyen Bao Han Tran examines how the conflict is reinforcing two competing lessons for Beijing: weaker actors can impose serious costs through asymmetric drone warfare, while prolonged U.S. military engagement elsewhere may strain allied deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. As Middle Eastern and Asian security dynamics become increasingly interconnected, this article argues that China may become more cautious about full-scale invasion while finding blockade, gray-zone coercion, and other strategies below the threshold of war increasingly attractive.

Isabelle Zhu Women in Security

Innovation and Inclusion: Leveraging NATO DIANA to Advance Women in STEM

Isabelle Zhu argues that NATO DIANA can serve as a key platform to uplift women in STEM. By providing opportunities to connect women across the Alliance with the private and public sectors, government, and academia, DIANA has the potential to advance women’s involvement and participation in these fields.

Cyber Security and Emerging Threats

Nuclear Allegations and Rhetoric Continue to Undermine Global Peace

Hope Arpa re-evaluates the logic of nuclear deterrence in the context of nuclear programs allegation’s use to justify interventions. The article considers allegations of nuclear programs as motivators of preemptive strikes, discursive tools to justify intervention politically and socially, and the perception of enemy states as nuclear ambitious causing security dilemmas. The root cause of these conflicts is not necessarily framed as exclusively the nuclear weapons themselves, but the international system’s framing of them as the ultimate ‘self-defense’ tools.

Cyber Security and Emerging Threats

Changing the Currents of Conflict: Oil, Water, and the Flows Reshaping the Middle East

Conflict follows the currents of scarcity, and NATO must navigate a world where the most dangerous battles are fought over what no longer flows freely. These behaviours signal a shift in how conflict will unfold: not only through conventional force, but through the manipulation, withholding, and weaponization of essential resources. This article explores three plausible scenarios – oil dominance, water ascendancy, and a dual‑pressure world – to map how resource hoarding could shape the next generation of conflict in the Middle East and beyond, and what this means for NATO’s strategic posture in the decades ahead.

Cyber Security and Emerging Threats

Is NATO Ready for the Brain Battlefield? Navigating the Governance Window for Neurotechnology

In the shadow of artificial intelligence, governments are pouring billions into technologies that collapse the distinction between human thought and machine computation. If NATO does not intervene early, it risks ceding strategic influence to competitors who view the mind as a domain for military advantage. Yet the strategic promise of neurotechnology is matched by questions about control, accountability, and exploitation that the Alliance cannot afford to ignore. NATO must move quickly, but through a phased approach that balances innovation with the protection of cognitive integrity.

Canadian Armed Forces

2 Years On: What “Our North, Strong and Free” has — and hasn’t — Delivered  

This April marks two years since the Department of National Defence released its updated policy titled “Our North, Strong and Free: A Renewed Vision for Canada’s Defence,” which pledged $8.1 billion over five years and $73 billion over 20 years in national defence, signifying a new commitment to a military that had previously been underfunded Read More…

Indo-Pacific and NATO

Uncertain Course: Japan’s Indo-Pacific Strategy Under Review

As Chinese pressure on Japan intensifies across military activity, economic coercion, and political influence, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s has undertaken a review of Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy in response to a harsher strategic environment. Tasneem Gedi argues, however, that FOIP’s credibility will ultimately depend on whether Tokyo can build a framework durable enough to hold as American support becomes less predictable and the alliance structure underpinning it comes under greater strain.

Society, Culture, and Security

La violence sexuelle : une arme de guerre oubliée de la sécurité internationale

En temps de guerre, certaines formes de violence s’imposent immédiatement à l’attention : bombardements, combats de rue ou destructions d’infrastructures. D’autres formes de violence, pourtant comparables en termes d’impact social et politique, demeurent structurellement sous-intégrées aux cadres d’analyse sécuritaire. C’est le cas de la violence sexuelle, largement documentée dans de multiples conflits contemporains. Cette violence Read More…

Morgan Singer Women in Security

The Parity Imperative: Why Women’s Political Representation is Imperative to NATO’s Peace and Security Agenda

Women’s political representation is an integral condition for achieving durable peace, however, progress toward parity has begun stalling recent years. This article examines the mechanisms through which women’s substantive political representation produces positive outcomes for NATO’s peace and security agenda. The NATO Alliance must cultivate a political order where women lead, not only as a gender equity imperative but as a peace imperative, as women’s leadership presents the surest defence against adversaries seeking to destabilize the Alliance.